Blane Bachelor, whose home was flooded in the recent rains, listens to Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor Scott Weiner at the intersection of Cayuga Avenue and Rotteck Street as they talk with residents about plans regarding the floods in the neighborhood between Mission Terrace and Glen Park after the recent rains. less

Blane Bachelor, whose home was flooded in the recent rains, listens to Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor Scott Weiner at the intersection of Cayuga Avenue and Rotteck Street as they talk with residents about plans ... more

Susan Garduno, Cayuga Street resident, walks in her backyard at her home which was flooded in the recent rains on Friday, December 19, 2014 in San Francisco, Calif. The backyard became so flooded a shed (behind Garduno) and hot tub (left) were moved by the water from their original location in the yard. less

Susan Garduno, Cayuga Street resident, walks in her backyard at her home which was flooded in the recent rains on Friday, December 19, 2014 in San Francisco, Calif. The backyard became so flooded a shed (behind ... more

This week’s clear skies came as a relief to dozens of San Francisco residents who live on and around Cayuga Avenue, where recent rains flooded 26 homes with raw sewage and water and displaced six families — 10 years after flooding caused similar damage, prompting the city to pay out more than $1 million to residents.

Residents say that city officials promised the 2004 event would be the last time their homes were deluged by water.

It wasn’t. So last Friday, as rain fell, residents of the low-lying neighborhood — sandwiched between Glen Park and Mission Terrace and surrounded by Interstate 280 and Alemany Boulevard — gathered on a corner to talk with Mayor Ed Lee, Supervisor Scott Wiener and other city leaders about what is being done.

What they heard? There are no simple solutions and it’s almost certain that the neighborhood will be underwater again. The city and property owners, said Lee, need to come together for long-term solutions that could include the city buying out property owners and knocking down homes.

The mayor was unusually blunt, acknowledging that the city’s 100-year-old combined sewer and rainwater system can’t handle the types of storms seen in recent weeks, and that there’s not much to be done to fix that, given Cayuga Avenue’s low elevation and the surrounding concrete highways. He and Wiener promised to gather up all the historical information and hold a meeting soon to start coming up with long-term solutions.

City officials should never have promised that the flooding would never happen again, he said.

“Solutions are not going to be easy, and they are going to be expensive for everybody,” the mayor told about two dozen residents as city crews continued to clean up damaged homes nearby. “This is the beginning of winter — we may be back here with severe flooding in two weeks. But I don’t like people’s homes flooding. I don’t want you to be victims every five years or 10 years.”

Residents said they were encouraged by the response but skeptical given the area’s history. In 2004, storms also left the ground floors of dozens of homes under several feet of water, destroying property, displacing first floor dwellers and killing a dog that was electrocuted by a downed power line. This month, videos shot by residents show several feet of water flowing down city streets and sewage shooting out of storm drains like geysers. A number of cars were destroyed.

Forgotten neighborhood

Residents told the mayor that they have historically been forgotten by City Hall.

“We are a lost little neighborhood — we are not part of Glen Park, not part of Mission Terrace,” said Jessica Alfaro, who bought a home there in 2004, shortly before the last big storm.

Alfaro, who lives with her husband, two young children and her husband’s 75-year-old aunt, saw raw sewage back up into her garage this month and cause extensive water damage to the downstairs bedroom. Among the casualties were baby gear — including expensive car seats and strollers — her husband’s golf clubs, their $7,000 furnace and their washer and dryer. The city now wants to demolish the bedroom, but Alfaro isn’t sure where to put their aunt if that happens.

Ten years ago, she said, “we were pretty young and didn’t know what do do — we cleaned up ourselves and didn’t get any response from the city.”

“We just kind of ate the cost and dealt with it,” Alfaro said.

This time, she said, the city responded quickly with cleanup crews but didn’t reach out to residents — so her family didn’t know they were eligible for help for about a week after the first storm, when they stopped workers and asked for it.

“The city is being responsive, but I am still pretty skeptical, I won’t believe anything until we get a check,” she said. “And the mayor kept saying, 'This is going to expensive for all of us’ — I felt like he was saying, 'You guys have to pay for part of it.’”

City changes tone

Mark W. Epstein, an attorney at the San Francisco law firm Seiler Epstein Ziegler & Applegate LLP, said he represented about five residents after the 2004 storm, who received a little more than $1 million in compensation from the city after a six-year legal battle.

“They probably never should have allowed development in this area,” he said. “It’s a system failure, not a maintenance issue.”

The city’s tone is much different this time around, he said.

“If I had had for the last case what Mayor Lee said last week … it would been easier,” he said. “Maybe the city will step up and not make residents wait so long, fight so hard, for damages. ... It’s possible that the city will step up and do what it should do, which is fully compensate people, and then there is no reason for me to be involved.”

Still, at least 10 people have already retained Epstein this time around, he said.

Tyrone Jue, a spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, said the city has taken a different approach this time around. It stationed crews out there within a day of the first rains to pump out water and dry out homes and is bringing contractors out to replace damaged drywall and make other improvements.

Call for creative fixes

But he echoed the mayor’s comments, saying it’s not possible to increase sewer capacity to handle big storms, and that creative solutions are going to have to be employed.

“Maybe homes need to be elevated. Maybe we have to have flood easements,” he said. “There are out-of-the-box solutions we have to look at.”

Residents are taking different tacks for dealing with it. Susan Garduno, whose family has owned a home on Cayuga since the 1940s, said she is moving “somewhere higher,” Other residents said they will continue to fight for their slice of the city.

“We are tired of being the forgotten neighborhood,” said Jorge Gonzalez, who lives on Rotteck Street with his husband. “The traffic, the plumbing, it’s horrible. ...We are all taxpayers.”